History Literature / TheShapesOfMidnight

* SexEqualsDeath: [[spoiler:The protagonists final victims in "Diary of a Werewolf" include a couple [[AutoErotica having sex in a car]].]]

** "Slime": Being completely absorbed by a BlobMonster means there's no body left for the authorities to find.

** In "Slime," the monster's first victim is homeless man Henry Hossing. When he goes missing, everyone just assumes he's moved on.

Long of print, it is apparently due to be republished by Dover in July, 2019. However, it appears that it is going to omit "Canavan's Back Yard" and "Slime" because of their earlier inclusion in ''Literature/NineHorrorsAndADream'' (which Dover is also reprinting). The Stephen King introduction will also apparently be left out of the Dover reissue, making the original 80s paperback worth obtaining despite the reprint.

* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: The main character moves into a place called Hemlock House in "Diary of a Werewolf." Not exactly a nice name for a house.

** And then there's Henry Crotell, the unwitting inheritor of Hannibal's book and ring. He lives by himself in a shack and sustains himself with a private garden and by doing odd jobs around Juniper Hill. He's a harmless CloudCuckooLaunder and a lot nicer variety of hermit than Hannibal... until he finds the book, that is.

** The late Hannibal Trobish (the original owner of the TomeOfEldritchLore and presumably the RingOfPower, too) was known as a reclusive CloudCuckooLander who lived alone, rarely coming outside except to chase people off his property with a gun.
** And then there's Henry Crotell, the unwitting inheritor of Hannibal's book and ring. He lives by himself in a shack and sustains himself with a private garden and by doing odd jobs around Juniper Hill. He's a lot nicer variety of hermit than Hannibal... until he finds the book, that is.

* AcquitedTooLate: Henry in "Slime." Pegged by Underbeck as the murderer of Barnaby and Jason, he is eventually acquitted after one of Underbeck's own men survives an encounter with the blob to tell the truth, forcing Underbeck to admit that Henry, "far from being the murderer, was just one more victim."

* "[[Literature/Slime1953 Slime]]": An [[BlobMonster amorphous]] EldritchAbomination preys on the denizens of the town of Clinton Center after a storm. Originally published in ''Weird Tales'' in 1953.

** "Slime": Everyone who dies. 'Cause the slime creature ate them.

[[quoteright:313:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shapes_of_midnight.jpg]]

* AngryMob: One forms outside of Hemlock House to lynch the protagonist in the first story after his attack against the couple in the car. His diary abruptly ends there. [[spoiler:A postscript concerning his trial and eventual incarceration in an insane asylum reveals he was rescued from them by Sheriff Macelin's police force.]] One also figures into the backstory of "Canavan's Back Yard," as part of [[spoiler:the WitchHunt against Goodie Larkins.]]

Long of print, it is apparently due to be republished by Dover in July, 2019. However, it appears that it is going to omit "Canavan's Back Yard" and "Slime" because of their earlier inclusion in ''Literature/NineHorrorsAndADream'' (which Dover is also reprinting).

Long of print, it is apparently due to be republished by Dover in July, 2019.

** "Slime": Everyone who dies. [[CaptainObvious 'Cause the slime creature ate them]].

* AgentMulder:
** Dave Baines in "The Willow Platform." He's got a pretty workable - if outlandish - theory for pretty much everything involving the weird stuff Henry Crotell gets up to, right down to offering up a [[DoingInTheWizard plausible explanation]] for the EldritchAbomination.
** Giles Gowse in "Slime" has long believed, more than most, that something just isn't right about Wharton's Swamp, and he becomes ''convinced'' of it after something takes his cow in the night.
* AgentScully: Gowse's neighbor Rupert Barnaby in "Slime," who's hunted in the swamp all his life, dismisses Gowse's warnings. [[spoiler:He gets killed as a result.]] Chief Underbeck in the same story likewise insists there's a rational explanation for everything... until eventually there isn't and he has to come around to Gowse's way of thinking, even grudgingly [[LampshadeHanging referring to him]] as "[[TheCassandra Old Man Cassandra]]."

* DisposableVagrant: In "Slime," the monster's first victim is homeless man Henry Hossing, while in "The Impulse to Kill," the protagonist explicitly chooses criminals to murder, figuring no one will care about them.

* "House of Memory": A terminally ill girl's childhood house appears seemingly out of thin air. Originally published in ''Creator/AlfredHitchcock's Mystery Magazine'' in 1967.